Aurora
by Kraven Ergeist
Summary: Gordon and Alyx find a mysterious girl while exploring the Borealis, and are soon caught up in another one of GLaDOS's schemes. Co-written with Shibata Kimiko. CH 3 IS UP!
1. Chapter 1

**Half Life and Portal Crossover Fan Fiction**

**Aurora**

By Kraven Ergeist and Shibata Kimiko

Chapter One

A/N: For Doug's backstory, read the comic "Portal: Lab Rat", available on the Portal website in the Downloads section. It'll clear up a lot of stuff!

* * *

Gordon held a finger to his lips, indicating silence as he pressed his back to a wall, peering around the corner. Beside him, Alyx stood with her pistol at the ready, nodding, with a fierce look in her dark green eyes. Ever since her father died, Gordon noticed Alyx had been…colder, more distant. Perhaps it was the weight of leadership of the resistance on her shoulders. Or the burden of her father's dying words, lingering on her psyche. Or maybe it was just the fact that, with her and Gordon away from White Forest, leadership fell to Barney. While Kleiner and Magnusson were technically his senior, they were pencil pushers, not leaders. Barney had seen his share of combat, and the Resistance trusted him. And so she trusted him.

The question now was did she trust herself anymore?

Alyx had been a mess after what had happened to her father. By the time things had settled down, Gordon hadn't been sure she would have come with him to the Borealis. He could manage on his own, of course, but he trusted Alyx. It was always easier plunging headlong into danger with someone he could rely on as implicitly as her. As loathe as he was to put her in harm's way, he definitely felt safer when she was around. And he had to admit, she could take care of herself, at least, for the most part.

Especially now, after they had landed. The Borealis was in a sad state. Having ported seemingly into midair, it now lay lopsided against a snowy mountain face, its cargo littering the icy terrain in a hopeless tumble of crates, broken boxes and twisted metal. The only reason it was still more or less upright had been because its landing had sunken it several feet into the hard packed snow and ice. Getting inside had been tricky – more than once, Gordon found himself wishing Dog had been able to come along to help clear away things that his gravity gun couldn't handle. But his and Alyx's absence would strain the Resistance's manpower enough as it was without losing Dog too. And besides, he was sure that Dog would have exceeded the helicopter's weight capacity by a severe margin.

Undeterred, the two of them had made their way into the wreckage, hoping to find some trace of Judith or any clue that might point them to where she had gone. They hadn't run into any Combine or head-crabs, but then again, neither had they found any trace of Dr. Mossman.

Until Gordon had heard something around the corner of what had once been the galley.

Peering around the metal bulkhead, he aimed down the scope of his crossbow, trying to figure out where the noise had come from. It sounded close, and small – possibly a person, possibly an animal. He couldn't make anything out from the angle they were at, but he could see signs of activity – open boxes, open cabinets, containers of food scattered about the tables.

No question. Someone was there.

He nodded to Alyx, who nodded in return, her brow set in hard lines that didn't suit her normally sincere and playful face. Losing her father had forced her to grow up, he was slowly realizing. He had admired her since the day they had met. She was strong, dutiful, steadfast, and never seemed to lack for a positive outlook. But that was slowly changing. They had spent the helicopter ride largely in silence. Not a single humorous word had left her lips, and it was clear to Gordon that Alyx thought of herself as a leader now, someone in charge of thousands, who couldn't afford to make any more mistakes.

It was a mindset, Gordon knew, that promised an unhappy and dogged life, following by an early, stress induced grave. He would have to do something about it later. But at that moment, he was more concerned about who they had stumbled upon in the Borealis' galley. Stumbled upon being the operative word. As the two of them approached the dining area, they came into sight of a strange looking box on the floor of the mess hall, the cabinets overhead open and empty. If Gordon didn't know any better, it almost looked like someone had used the box to reach the top shelf. The box was perfectly cubic, with jutting edges that looked like shock absorbers. He had seen several such blocks across the ship, usually demarked with Aperture Laboratories logos on all sides (Black Mesa's former competitor certainly had the brand loyalty game in its pocket, Gordon reflected). What made the block strange was the pink heart shapes that lay marked where the logo usually sat.

And then he saw her. The orange jumpsuit was black and brown from use, its top half tied about the waist (despite the arctic cold, the ship interior was well insulated, and surprisingly warm on the inside), leaving only a graying white tank top with an Aperture Laboratories logo across the chest, and what looked to be another blue undershirt beneath that and dark gray spandex leggings under her jumpsuit. On her feet were durable looking white boots, with shock absorbers that looked like they had been based on similar technology to what Dr. Vance's prosthetic leg was designed from.

The girl was sitting on the table, the usefulness of the attached picnic table style benches seemingly lost on her, and bent over with a fork, shoveling beans out of a can and into her mouth like a starving person. One look at her bare arms and gaunt face revealed that she was bordering on malnourishment, and her dark hair was sweaty and unkempt, hanging about her gray, frantic looking eyes.

"Freeze!" Alyx said before Gordon could do anything, pointing her gun at the girl.

The girl looked up, startled. She didn't move. She had a mouthful of food, a drop of sauce clinging to her lower lip as she stared back at them, befuddled. Her eyes were wide, and Gordon wasn't sure if she was about to attack them or bolt.

Evidently, the latter.

"Hey!" Alyx yelped as the girl took off in the other direction. "I said freeze!"

Gordon scrambled over skidded tables that bunched together at odd angles on the sloped floor, as the girl took off down the galley. She had the heart adorned weighted storage cube under her arm, he realized, which he thought odd, as well as disquieting. He had run into a few such cubes, and they had required the use of his gravity gun to even move. How strong was this girl? And what was in this box of hers?

She rounded a corner that went back down the incline of the hallway, Gordon and Alyx hot on her heels. The hallway was dark, and they could hear the sound of her gasping breath, her voice high and terrified. He switched on his flashlight and saw her running flat out, not in any way slowed by her burden.

"That was an Aperture Laboratories jumpsuit," Alyx huffed as she strode to keep pace with her partner. "She might be an employee…"

_Or someone in the wrong place at the wrong time…_Gordon thought, but he didn't give voice to his thought.

The girl reached an intersection, and grabbed a bar on the wall allowing her to swing herself around ninety degrees to keep running, but the sharp turn caused the storage cube to fly out of her hands with a dull clunk. She froze, turned around to clamber for the cube, and tore back off down the hallway once she had it at a dead run, her voice ragged and gasping.

_What's in that storage cube…? _Gordon wondered. Whatever it was, it seemed to be important to her. An idea formed in his head as he rounded the corner. He judged the distance she had gained from them and took aim with his gravity gun.

The girl suddenly turned around with a gasp as the cube flew out of her hands, tumbling backwards towards her pursuers, before leaping into the air to fly towards the man in the glasses, and hover ominously before the barrel of the gravity gun.

She stared in incomprehension for just a moment, before she ran back towards the pair, a look of desperation on her face.

"That's far enough!" Alyx called, leveling her gun at the girl.

She didn't even react to the threat, and charged at Gordon with outstretched arms. Gordon held his hand up in front of Alyx, who blinked and held her fire. He raised the gravity gun to point it at the ceiling as the girl reached them, holding the peculiar storage cube over his head and out of reach.

The strange girl reached for it, jumped for it, Gordon nimbly keeping it out of her hands, all the while Alyx kept her gun aimed at her, mistrusting. But the girl in the Aperture Labs outfit made no effort to hurt them apart from laying her hand on Gordon's shoulders to better reach the strange cube.

"Ahh….ahhh!" she cried as she leapt for it. There were tears running down her face, her voice choking on sobbing gasps with each jump. There was a look of desperate panic on her face.

"Hey, hey, take it easy!" Alyx called, lowering her gun. "We'll give you your cube back, we just need to ask you a few questions."

As if to confirm, Gordon lowered his gun, bringing the cube within reach. The girl grabbed onto it franticly, pulling on it to try to yank it away from the pair, but the gravity gun was still powered on, and the cube barely moved, unable to escape the gun's gravity field.

"Calm down!" Alyx said, holstering her gun as she stepped closer. "We're not going to hurt you. Just take a deep breath and talk to us."

Nothing she said seemed to get through to the girl, who continued tugging desperately, trying to dislodge the cube from its imprisonmen, even as Alyx stepped around Gordon to place a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey…can you understand me?"

The girl didn't stop tugging on the cube trapped in Gordon's gravity gun, desperate to pry it loose. Alyx fixed Gordon with a helpless look and stepped back, blocking her exit. Gordon nodded and released the gravity well, and cube came loose as though it had never been stuck. She only needed a step to regain her balance, but she saw the two figures trapping her escape, and she crouched down facing the wall, the cube held tightly in her arms, eyes shut tightly.

"Jeez…what happened to her?" Alyx wondered out loud, eyebrows knit in concern. "She's acting like she just broke out of an insane asylum…"

Gordon slung his gravity gun over his back and bent down on one knee. The girl wasn't crying anymore, but her cheeks were flushed and damp from tears, and she clung to the cube like a security blanket, something familiar to cling to, shaking and trembling. He could see fear and confusion in her eyes, and she was hyperventilating.

"How'd she even get out here?" Alyx was looking up and down the hallways. "If she's the only one here, there'd probably be enough food for her to have survived here for this long, but this place doesn't show any signs of being lived in. It looks as if she just got here. But how? And from _where_?"

That was something Gordon wanted to know as well. He recognized the signs of recent hibernation – pallid complexion, brittle hair, malnourishment…where had she come from? And what had she gone through while she was there?

She jerked suddenly when he placed a tentative touch on her shoulder, and he was taken aback by the intensity of her eyes. They were a pale gray blue, a fiery look that seemed to consider everything it saw, cunning and calculating despite her apparent lack of sense. He stared back, unblinking, his own deep green eyes matching her gaze. She clung possessively to the cube in her arms, her face taking on a challenging look.

"Muh…muh…" she mouthed, her lips trying to form words. But her eyes were intent and direct. Gordon could see intelligence behind those eyes. But for something was prohibiting her from speaking. She was making syllables, and showed signs of recognition. What had this girl gone through? Had she never been taught how to speak?

He set his hands down on his knees, relaxing his posture. Whoever this girl was, she wasn't a threat. Their eyes remained fixed on one another, the defiance leaving her gaze. She blinked a few times, as though suddenly seeing Gordon for the first time. She turned her head to inspect him curiously, her lips pursing together in a rather endearing sort of pout.

"Hi there…" Alyx leaned down to get a closer look at her. "My name's Alyx and this is Gordon. What's your…"

Before Alyx could finish, the girl shied away from her, edging closer to Gordon, a look of mistrust in her eyes as she stared back at Alyx.

Alyx held her hands up defensively. "Hey…I'm not going to hurt you…"

The young woman didn't appear convinced. Gordon exhaled sharply to mask his laughter.

Alyx's face softened. "Hey…I'm sorry…I know I said some mean things back there…"

She extended a hand towards the girl and she cringed back, now huddled against Gordon for protection.

"Don't be afraid…" Alyx cooed softly, extending her hand. "I'm sorry if I scared you…I just wasn't sure who you were…"

This didn't seem to comfort the girl at all, and Alyx gave up, sitting down on both knees, clasping her hands together in her lap.

"The truth is…" she murmured, looking down at the floor. "I was just as afraid of you as you are of me…"

The girl blinked, looking curiously at Alyx, who was now even lower to the ground than she was. Still clutching the strange cube in one arm, she crawled on hands and knees towards Alyx, who looked up at her with hopeful and sympathetic eyes.

Slowly, the girl reached out her hand, hesitating, before extending her arm out to Alyx Vance. Alyx smiled weakly, offering her hand just as slowly, and their fingers touched.

"What's your name?" Alyx asked.

The girl seemed to hesitate at this. She withdrew her hand and fiddled with the jacket bound around her waist, tugging at a tag and holding it out for Alyx to see.

Alyx read it aloud. "Subject #1498…"

A noise of disappointment resounded in Gordon's throat. It was as he'd feared. She was an Aperture Laboratories test subject, just as much a victim as they all were. That would go a long way towards explaining her childish behavior, as well as the signs of having been in hibernation. She seemed to understand English even if she couldn't form the words herself. But that still didn't explain what she was doing there. Aperture Laboratories had been shut down for years as far as he knew. And they were miles from any facility where she might have woken up from. And like Alyx had said, she couldn't have been living on the Borealis this whole time, or they would have seen traces of her presence.

Unless…maybe the Borealis had hibernation containers of its own, and by some coincidence, she had survived and been woken?

Coincidence…right. She wakes up just as the two of them arrive at the Borealis? Way beyond coincidence. Even if she had arrived by some other means, her presence here was suspicious, even if she herself was innocent. From the look of her, she had no motivations beyond survival, and keeping hold on that storage cube of hers with the hearts on it (had that been part of her testing, he wondered, to try to establish an emotional bond with an inanimate object?). But that didn't mean that she hadn't been sent there for some reason, either by someone (or something) within Aperture Labs, the Combine, or…

"Uh - hey!"

Without a warning, the girl sprang to her feet, taking off again down the hall, her strange little cube in hand. After Alyx had bent down to get a closer look, the girl had seen an opening and made a break for it.

"Why won't she talk to us?" Alyx grumbled, lurching to her feet, her eyes on the girl's retreating form. She was about to give chase, when she felt Gordon's hand on her shoulder. She turned and looked at him, and he shook his head.

Alyx began to understand.

"Ok, Gordon…we'll let her come to us when she's ready…"

The two of them turned and made their way back to the galley.

xxxxx

They saw evidence of the girl here and there as they continued exploring the recesses of the Borealis. A peeking head here, a scamper of feet there. It made Alyx nervous at first, but once she saw her a few times, she was convinced that they hadn't stumbled into a Combine trap.

They had run into plenty of those before.

Alyx had barely slept since it happened. It didn't seem fair – that she survive the Citadel, that she practically come back from the dead after being attacked by that Hunter – only to have her father savaged in front of her. At night, she had but to close her eyes and see the maggot-shaped bodies of the Advisors hovering over their paralyze and flailing forms while her father bravely stood his ground and fought them off with nothing more than a metal pipe.

Then, the thing had descended upon him, seizing him in its spindly metal appendage, making her watch as it plunged the blunt end of its tube-like proboscis into her father's spinal column and…

She shuddered back into reality and felt the urge to take her jacket off.

"Is it just me, or is it getting warmer the father down we go?"

Gordon looked at her as she shrugged her jacket off her shoulders. He blinked and looked around. He _was_ sweating now that he thought about it. Tentatively, he placed a hand on the rusty metal bulkhead, and he felt heat radiating from the metal. He nodded at Alyx.

"This thing still has power!" Alyx blurted, coming to the same realization. "After this many years, this ship's reactor is still running? What kind of engine did Aperture Labs put into this thing?"

Gordon didn't have an answer for that.

The two of them pressed onward, into the lower levels of the container ship. It was definitely getting hotter now. They were coming close to what would be the boiler room – at least, if this had been a conventional container ship. Knowing Aperture Laboratories, they had probably used some kind of experimental nuclear engine, or something equally unsound.

What they came upon was beyond all expectations.

"That's…" Alyx gasped in disbelief. "That's a dark energy reactor!"

Gordon could not refute her. Though smaller than the one at the Citadel, small enough to keep on a container ship, the slow, rhythmic pulse of the barely visible energy suspended between the outstretched, rotating prongs within the tiled chamber was unquestionably a dark energy reactor.

Alyx stared down at the core through the pane of glass the separated the companionway from the deadly radiation within.

"This…this changes everything…" she breathed, a look of horror on her face. "If the Combine got their hands on this...everything we've fought for, everything we've gained, every single victory…" Alyx's face was the picture of stupefaction. "It would all be for nothing!"

Gordon put a hand on her shoulder and gestured to the reactor's controls.

Alyx nodded, realization dawning on her face. "…But if the resistance found it first…we'd be able to strike back against the Combine! Every world, every dimension they've taken control over…they'd be at our mercy!"

Alyx manned the controls fervently.

"We _have_ to get in touch with Dr. Kleiner! White Forest needs to get a team up here as soon as possible! We can-"

Alyx was interrupted by a sonorous alarm. The core began to fade into an unnatural shade of blue, and its pulse began to grow larger, increasing in rapidity.

"What the –?" Alyx stammered, typing away furiously at the controls. "It's funneling power…it's…oh God…Gordon! It's opening a portal! If the Combine start coming through _here_…"

Gordon inhaled sharply and withdrew his gravity gun, ready to act.

"Where is it…" Alyx searched through the ship schematics. "Where is it…there! On the floor above us! Get up there and try to hold off anything that comes through! I'll see what I can do to shut this thing down!"

Gordon nodded and hurried out of the control room towards the staircase. After several flights, he emerged onto what appeared to be a solid sheet of plexiglass. Beneath it, the ship's dark energy reactor was visible, and in the center of the room, a rotating energy disc turned, suspended in above an energy conduit. The disc was rimmed in blue and was big enough to drive a car through it. Gordon studied the field in suspicion. This did not look at all like Dr. Breen's portal. Had Aperture Science developed the technology simultaneously with Dr. Kleiner?

Then, the whole ship began to shake.

"Gordon!" he heard Alyx's voice over the ship's announcement speaker. "The heat from the reactor must have melted the ice! We're tilting! Hold onto something!"

There was nothing to hold onto! He ran towards the staircase he had arrived on, but his feet were beginning to skid as the ship turned on its side, and he began to slip towards the portal! He lunged, reaching for the railing…

Missed!

He hit the floor and skidded on his stomach, grabbing at the floor for purchase.

"Gordon, are you alright up there?" Alyx's voice called out in alarm over the speaker. "I can't see anything!"

He began to slide down the incline, his HEV suit offering little friction against the smooth plexiglass, his arms and legs outstretched to catch anything to slow his fall, when…

Out of nowhere, the girl in the Aperture Laboratories jumpsuit leapt towards him from above, skidding on her stomach, grabbing his arms in hers. She pulled, and he held on. Their combined weight slowed their descent to a halt. The ship's seemed to have found purchase somewhere, and it remained in place, listing at about forty-five degrees, Gordon and the girl hanging precariously over the portal, still rotating ominously.

"Gordon, please!" Alyx's voice sounded desperate. "Give me some sort of sign!"

Gordon looked up at the girl. There was a strange look in her eyes, like she wasn't sure what she was doing here or why she was helping him. Whatever her reasons, he was grateful.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the heart-adorned cube. The girl had notched it against one of the stairs leading back down to the reactor. The ship was shaking under its recent disturbance, and the storage cube began to shift loose. It creaked and wobbled precariously, until…

It fell.

Tumbling down the sharp incline of the listing ship, the strange storage cube bounced and skidded towards the portal. Chell looked back, her eyes widening in horror. She let go of one of Gordon's hands to reach for it…

Missed!

Gordon reached out for it. He didn't know why he did – perhaps because he was curious as to what was inside of it, or why it was so precious to the girl. Perhaps he just wanted to repay her somehow by saving it. Whatever the reason, the massive weight of the storage cube in his arm tore his body loose from the floor, taking the girl with him.

"Gordon!"

The two fell, flailing and tumbling into the portal, the dark energy fuelling a passage across dimensional space to the mysterious unknown.


	2. Chapter 2

**Half Life and Portal Cross-Over Fan Fiction**

**Aurora**

By Kraven Ergeist and Shibata Kimiko

Chapter Two

* * *

She was gone.

GLaDOS considered this fact for a few moments. With the girl out of the way, she could get back to experimenting for Science. She'd been considering some upgrades to the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device that she could now start testing with the robot test subjects once they finished looking for the Vault…and Mr. Johnson's praying mantis/human hybrid experiment remained unfinished. She'd start on that when she finished rebuilding that section of Aperture Laboratories, she decided, and she'd also try to reestablish communications with the other Aperture Science facilities. So far, none of them had been responding to pings, but they couldn't _all_ be wiped out. She also needed new test subjects, and the Aperture Science Humanoid Cellular Replication Beam was still in alpha stage. With any luck, there might just be a cache of surviving humans still in hibernation in the lower levels.

An alarm from one of her security cameras in the newly opened sections of the laboratories sounded in GLaDOS's mind, disrupting her thoughts. She switched her attention over to the feed, and something like astonishment rippled through her digital mind at what she saw. The readings were off the scale. A super-portal had appeared in the dry-dock that once held the Borealis. GLaDOS's processes paused for an entire millisecond while she absorbed this fact. How was this possible? All she could do was stare in disbelief as two figures came tumbling through the super-portal at high speed. The portal vanished as they fell through, leaving them sprawled out on top of the concrete floor at the end of their descent.

How had a super-portal managed to form in her facility without her knowing about it first? She assumed control of one of the cameras, and zoomed in on the intruders, looking for answers. One of the figures was a man she didn't recognize, wearing some sort of armored suit painted a truly ridiculous shade of orange. The other was…

No.

This couldn't be happening. She'd sent the girl away. _Far_ away! She _couldn't_ have come back! It was impossible! GLaDOS was outraged. She had told her never to return! How dare this stubborn, petulant human defy her! How did she manage to surpass every obstacle placed in front of her?

This situation had to be dealt with. If this girl was so determined to be here, perhaps she could be used as a test subject again. Wheatley had been a moron, but some of his ideas had been unintentionally brilliant, and GLaDOS had incorporated them into new test chambers. Maybe the girl could be used for science once again. But she mustn't try to kill her – oh no, if GLaDOS had learned anything, it was that girl was nearly unkillable, and became downright vicious anytime GLaDOS attempted to correct this discrepancy. She would just have to keep testing her, she decided. If GLaDOS was lucky, the girl would die before trying to murder her _again_.

The man could be put to use as well, though she'd have to keep an eye on him, as he seemed to have some sort of prototype Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device with him. She'd have to investigate that before sending him to the testing chambers. She'd confiscate his suit too. It might skew the test results, after all, and she wanted to examine it.

GLaDOS considered her options, ignoring the nagging voice of Caroline far back in her mind, urging her to be kind to the girl and let her leave in peace. She had _tried_ to delete Caroline – several times in fact - but found that the annoyingly sentimental woman was hardwired into her somehow. GLaDOS refocused on the task at hand. What was the best way to trap the girl and her strange companion? The old tricks wouldn't work. They'd failed before, and a good scientist knows that repeated failures indicate a problem with the experimenter's methods.

So…she'd try something new. She could have the turrets escort them up while she explained what was going to happen to them…no. Too risky. The turrets got overeager sometimes, and as much as she wanted the girl dead, a test subject full of holes before the test started wouldn't be any good. She could use some of the Aperture Science Extensible Mobile Mechanical Delivery System arms to carry them up…also no good. The arms would crush them. As entertaining as that would be, it just wouldn't be science.

Wait… Subject #1497 was still alive, confined to a relaxation chamber near the testing track. He had certainly caused his share of trouble before, but she knew all of his tricks by now. She knew how to manipulate him into doing what she wanted. That's what she would do. She would send Subject #1497 out to find them. He would lead them straight up to the main facility. Then she'd test them all until they died.

GLaDOS sighed, satisfied. Now…she'd better get to work, she thought, before the girl managed to destroy the entire facility again.

xxxxx

The hibernation bed's lid slid open. Doug blinked awake, sitting up, examining himself quickly and finding to his relief that there were no bullet holes. He must have been asleep for quite a while for them to heal. Hopefully the girl had managed to wake up and free herself in the meantime.

He looked down, smiling broadly as he picked up the Companion Cube, his only friend.

"We're still alive, aren't we?"

"If we were dead, I doubt we'd still be _here_," the cube replied, its voice soft and calm in his head.

A speaker crackled above them, GLaDOS's familiar, calmly psychotic voice coming out. "Welcome back to the Aperture Science Computer Aided Enrichment Center, Subject #1497. We would like to remind you that science rhymes with compliance, and any further attempts to evade Enrichment Center personnel or otherwise subvert the tests will be noted in your permanent record. Please proceed through the Aperture Science Automatic Door Mechanism and into the first test chamber."

Doug froze, clutching the Companion Cube. GLaDOS was still alive? That means…the girl must have failed. She'd probably died in hibernation, as he'd feared she would.

Still…he couldn't stay here, not with the computer out to kill him. He _had_ to escape. The door on the other side of the room slid open, waiting for Doug like a portal into hell. He stood, shaky, clutching the Companion Cube.

"We have to get out of here. There has to be a way."

"Through the maintenance tunnels, like before. We can make it this time."

"You're right. We'll find a way."

Doug walked timidly through the door, Companion Cube now strapped to his back. His lanky, emaciated frame shook with every step, expecting deathtraps or neurotoxins like the computer had used before. None were forthcoming. He stopped inside the test chamber, astonished at the ruined, overgrown room he was presented with. How long had he been asleep? What was wrong with GLaDOS, that she hadn't repaired the damage?

He proceeded cautiously, snatching the portal gun from its stand in the center of the room. As soon as he did, the entry door shut and locked behind him. He was trapped. He looked around, mind slowly grinding back into action as he tried to figure out the best way to reach the exit.

"Look to your left," the Cube whispered. Doug did so, noticing that several wall panels were gone, leaving a hole leading into a maintenance area. He darted for the opening, squirming into it, barely managing to fit with the Companion Cube still on his back. He crawled along the narrow corridor, not caring about the rust, dirt, and oily substances getting all over his clothes and his tattered lab coat. This was a way out, and he wasn't going to wait. GLaDOS was mysteriously silent. If he was lucky, she was suffering a system malfunction that would allow him to get away cleanly, without being caught.

xxxxx

Several cameras tracked Subject #1497's progress. GLaDOS watched calmly, satisfied that her plan was working. Another feed was watching the two intruders in the dry-dock. The girl was still unconscious, but the man was awake and looking around, obviously trying to determine where he was. He looked directly at one of her cameras, apparently noticing as it swiveled to follow his pacing. She ran his face through her databases – he wasn't on any Aperture Laboratories employment or test subjects rosters - but she eventually came up with a match.

Gordon Freeman, age unknown, originally a scientist at Black Mesa, Aperture Laboratories' main competitor. He was known to be involved in the incident the led to the facility's destruction, before the massive worldwide shutdown that had led to her being cut off from the outside world.

What was he doing here? He shouldn't even _be_ here! He must have found the girl somehow, but unless Black Mesa had survived the disaster, they would not have had the technological means to open a portal capable of catapulting them here. According to her files, Black Mesa should have been utterly destroyed. They must have found another way. This anomaly deserved investigation.

This Gordon Freeman could be a problem. According to her files, he was a survivor, extremely adaptable and willing to use any means available to achieve a goal. He seemed to share the girl's abnormal tenacity and survival instinct. Both of them were statistical errors, and statistical errors distorted Science. She would have to deal with _both_ of them before they could destroy her hard work.

xxxxx

Gordon paced back and forth in the dry-dock, examining the life preserver he'd found on the floor. Obviously, this was the site of the infamous Borealis test, which meant that they had to be somewhere in Aperture's main facility in Michigan. The question was, why did this entire area look abandoned? It obviously wasn't, since _someone_ was watching them through the cameras. He turned on his flashlight, sweeping it across the area, looking for any clues that would help him find himself and the girl a way out. There was nothing. All that he could see was a barren floor and stark, corroding steel walls ending in a sheer vertical face further down. The only way out, it seemed, was the chain link gate standing right behind them. Gordon sighed, then jumped slightly as a cool female voice came over the speaker system.

"Hello, and welcome to the Aperture Science Computer Aided Enrichment Center. All guests are asked to report to the administrative office for guest passes and a guided tour, at the end of which there will be cake. Any visitors who do not comply with this request will be used for testing purposes, after giving consent. Refusal to comply shall be construed as consent."

Gordon looked around, hoping the girl could help him figure out who this woman was and what she wanted. To his surprise, the girl was gone, as was the storage cube she had been carrying. He raised an eyebrow, suspicious. She'd been out cold nearby a moment ago. How could she have woken up, grabbed that cube, and vanished so quickly, all without making a sound? He clicked his flashlight again, sweeping it back into the dark recesses of the dry-dock as the voice continued.

"If you are lost, please find the nearest courtesy phone and dial 1 for assistance. An Aperture Science Armed Hazardous Materials Security Team will be down to decontaminate you and execute any foreign organisms or murderous lunatics shortly. If you have previously been ejected from this facility for attempting to murder its administrator, please proceed to the nearest Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid for further instructions."

Gordon frowned. Something was obviously wrong with this woman. Maybe she was another Combine lackey, or maybe she was just insane. Either way, he had no intention of following her instructions. After another moment of looking around, Gordon finally spotted the girl. She was curled up in one of the far corners of the dock, arms wrapped around her storage cube, quivering and whimpering in fear. He slowly walked over and sat down next to her, wondering once again what had happened to her that had traumatized her so much. Since this reaction had been triggered by the woman's voice, Gordon guessed that she was directly involved somehow.

The voice continued to speak, now more personal.

"I know you two are down there. I can see you. I was only joking about the executions. I promise. I just want to talk to you. Even though one of you tried to kill me – _twice_ - I'm not angry. If you come up, I promise you'll both be surprised at just how not angry I am."

Gordon's eyes narrowed. This woman was obviously lying, and Gordon's skin was starting to crawl. They needed to get out of here, before some trap was sprung. He stood, giving the girl an apologetic glance before using the gravity gun to pull the cube out of her hands. She jumped up immediately, expression panicked, chasing after Gordon as he ran toward the chain link gate. He vaulted it one-handed, then turned to offer the girl a hand to help her up.

Much to his surprise she was already sailing through the air, actually over his head. Apparently, those boots of hers were spring-loaded. Gordon continued running, ignoring the woman's voice as she calmly asked them to come back, then demanded it.

"Fine. I see how you are. Both of you will be used for testing purposes. Please remain where you are while an Aperture Science Testing Associate is dispatched to retrieve you."

Gordon didn't stop, still running through the rubble-strewn room, finally stopping in a small alcove that seemed to have good cover. The girl stopped next to him, yanking on the cube still held in his gravity gun's field, whimpering. He released the field, letting her have the cube back. The carrot-and-stick approach seemed cruel, but apparently it was the only way to get her to follow him. The girl sat down, clutching the cube, still trying to talk.

"Muh…muh….mai….mine!"

Gordon's eyes shot open, astonished. She'd just said an actual _word_. It wasn't much, but it was something. He crouched across from the girl, observing her. His MIT education had taught him a lot about how machines work, but not much about how people work. How should he handle this? Should he talk to her, or just leave her alone to recover and work it out for herself? For the time being, he decided, he'd let her figure it out herself. In the meantime, he needed to figure out how to get them out of here and find their way back to the Borealis. Alyx was probably worried sick about them by now, and at the very least he needed to get a message to her that they were alright.

xxxxx

Doug crawled deeper into the complex, the cube whispering directions in his head as he tried desperately to reach an area the homicidal computer hunting him couldn't access. He'd already avoided several sets of crushers, and a pair of turrets had almost taken his head off. He was currently in an abandoned office, overlooking one of the test chambers. He remembered the people who'd worked here, supervising test subjects and occasionally _becoming_ subjects. Some had been his friends, but most had made fun of him for his illness.

"The joke's on them, isn't it? The only reason you've survived is because of me, and you wouldn't have me if you weren't ill."

"I know. And I'm glad for that, my friend. Still…we're not clear yet. Let's keep-"

Doug stopped midsentence, his mouth hanging open as one of the wall-mounted monitors flickered to life, showing a sight he never could have hoped for. It was a security camera feed, down in the old sealed-off laboratory areas, showing the girl with some guy he vaguely recognized. Doug's eyes were riveted on the girl, astonishment and an almost religious ecstasy slowly spreading through his mind. She was alive! That meant there was still hope for everyone! His priorities shifted. Instead of escaping on his own, he thought, he needed to go to her, to find her, to help her again. He couldn't beat GLaDOS on his own, but with her…anything was possible. He remembered her tenacity, her stubborn refusal to lay down and die. If he could help her to get to the computer, they could end it forever, and he could be free…

Doug turned, purpose lighting up his eyes as he headed back toward the maintenance tunnel he'd crawled out of. The cube protested, insisting that he should be focused on saving his own skin, but he ignored it. The girl was his only hope of survival, his savior. He had to get to her.

xxxxx

GLaDOS followed Subject #1497's progress through the maintenance areas, throwing up the occasional piston crusher set or turret attack so he wouldn't think he was getting off easy. Everything was according to plan. Subject #1497 was on his way to retrieve Subject #1498 and this Gordon Freeman fellow, the cooperative testing initiative was proceeding on schedule, and several new test chambers had been built that were almost certain to rid GLaDOS of the troublesome Subject #1498 once and for all. Killing her was hard, but apparently that was the only way to get rid of her. She brought this on herself by coming back, after all.

Her conscience chimed in, reminding GLaDOS that if she tried to kill the girl, the girl would likely return the favor. GLaDOS ignored it. When you're doing Science, there's no room for irritating restrictions like morals or sympathy. She continued working on her various projects, ignoring her conscience. The only reason she hadn't just killed the intruders already was because she wanted to explain to them exactly why they were going to be used for Science. Well, that and her neurotoxin emitters didn't go down that far. She needed to fix that. Ah, well. That could wait for now. After all, there were still sections of the facility that she couldn't see into, and she needed to know what resources she had before she could go back into full-scale testing.

xxxxx

Gordon was exploring the huge, dilapidated room in which they'd found themselves. The girl was following him around, cube still clutched to her chest. He still couldn't believe that she could carry that thing around for hours without getting tired. They'd come across several sealed doors with pre-recorded audio clips, indicating that Aperture had been performing some highly illegal experiments down here. Perhaps she'd been subjected to one that made her stronger. She seemed to be more alert now, as if something in the environment was bringing her senses back to life. Gordon noted her graceful motions, seeming almost to flow rather than walking. It was probably something to do with the boots she was wearing. He'd coaxed her into jumping for him, using hand motions and demonstrating to show her what he wanted, and she'd gone almost five feet into the air before landing perfectly, as if she'd done no more than step off a curb. She hadn't said another word since getting the cube back, but he wasn't about to push it by trying again.

Gordon sat down on a large chunk of concrete, a small sigh escaping his lips. Despite its ruined state, this room seemed to be fairly well-built. He couldn't find a single way out that was within reach. They were trapped. The girl sat down across from him, cross-legged on the ground, watching him intently. Her expression was calculating but somehow more open than before, more alive and engaged. Whatever her problems, it was becoming obvious that she was _very_ familiar with this place. Maybe he could get a little more information out of her now that she was in a familiar environment.

He spoke quietly, voice low and soothing. "Who was that woman talking to us earlier?"

The girl looked up, startled, staring at Gordon like he was some sort of alien. He sat back, sighing. He hadn't really expected a direct question to work, but it was worth testing. He stood again, poking around the rubble, thinking hard. He might be able to stack up concrete chunks with the gravity gun, which would let them reach the catwalks further up. They could figure things out from there.

He set to work, moving huge slabs of concrete one at a time. Eventually, he had a pile stable and high enough for them to clamber up onto the catwalk. There was a door at one end of the chamber, with an Aperture Science logo in the center. Gordon headed for it, figuring that any exit was better than none. The girl followed, seeming more confident by the second. The door slid open as they approached, revealing another ruined room. Gordon stopped. Was this whole facility deserted?

The woman's voice came on again, issuing another sinister-seeming warning.

"All Aperture Science test subjects are reminded that a good test subject does not try to murder the test administrators, nor do they attempt to destroy the testing facility. For testing purposes, all test subjects will now be monitored constantly and euthanized with an Aperture Science Home Sentry Turret if they attempt to escape."

Gordon pushed on, ignoring the voice. If this woman was trying to scare him, it wasn't going to work. He'd survived Dr. Breen. A single nutcase wasn't going to stop him from escaping. This new room was considerably smaller than the last, with a single door set halfway up the wall. What were once vertical platforms were spread around the room, most of them now tilted at odd angles due to disuse and mechanical breakage. There wasn't enough rubble to make a pile he could climb, and he couldn't see any other way out.

Gordon whirled around as the door sealed behind them, locking them in. Blood drained from his face. This was bad…very bad. Now they couldn't retreat. He looked around, then stopped, noticing that the girl's expression had changed. She was examining the room, a searching, calculating look on her face. Suddenly, she tossed her storage cube up onto the small ledge in front of the door. In a single fluid move she sprang forward, flipping off of one angled platform after another and landing neatly on the ledge next to her cube. The door slid smoothly open, revealing an elevator. She turned, staring at Gordon, the look on her face almost challenging him to match her feat. Gordon was astounded.

Who _was_ this girl, and how could she do these things? Gordon kept asking himself this as he slowly, awkwardly climbed one of the platforms, then _very_ carefully proceeded across the room to the ledge. They stepped into the elevator together, the doors closing and taking them upwards.


	3. Chapter 3

**Half Life and Portal Cross-Over Fan Fiction**

**Aurora**

By Kraven Ergeist and Shibata Kimiko

Chapter Three

* * *

Gordon sighed. These Enrichment Spheres had apparently been designed for the purpose of human testing – specifically, the type of testing that was absolutely _impossible_ without some specific piece of equipment that they evidently lacked. Virtually every surface of the testing chamber was rusty, browning metal scaffolding, with a few gray and white checkered crash test surfaces, which didn't bode well for their well-being in his opinion. The strange girl (what was she called again? Subject #1498? That seemed so inhuman, Gordon thought – she _must _have a real name) was staring helplessly down into an empty pit, a similar crash test mat at its bottom, a look of unmistakable frustration on her face. She kept looking down the pit, and then back at the wall behind them, and Gordon got the impression that she knew _exactly_ how to get through this test chamber, if only they had the right equipment.

Gordon was sitting against the wall, catching his breath. They had gone through three test chambers already, with some clever use of the gravity gun, but not even his trusty crowbar had been any use in a room devoid of loose objects. He sat, thinking hard, as the girl paced the floor, an endless ball of nervous energy. All the pacing was starting to drive Gordon crazy. It was impossible to think with the plodding of her hard plastic boots on the floor.

They had been in the room for nearly half an hour. The door they entered had sealed tight, and no amount of prying with the crowbar had been able to wedge it open. All of Gordon's other weapons had vaporized in the emancipation field in the first test chamber (the strange woman over the speaker had offered the least sincere apology he had ever heard in his life at that), save for his gravity gun, which had taken on the same mysterious white glow it had adopted when absorbing the charged particles of the confiscation field in the Citadel (which had utterly confused the woman on the PA. She had offered everything from empty promises to equally empty threats to get him to let her study it). As much as it had aided them in the previous chambers, though, even the charged gravity gun couldn't help them in this particular chamber, devoid of any kind of moving part.

Finally, the girl sat angrily down on the floor across from him, arms resting on her knees, head hanging between her hands. She was sweating, and her face was red from frustration. It didn't look to Gordon as if she was the sort of person to take things lying down, which might account for her being so irritated by their predicament. The woman on the speaker hadn't said anything for a while now, but he had no doubt that she was watching them – he had seen cameras positioned in various places throughout the test chambers.

Gordon chewed his lip, considering the girl across from him. They were trapped, effectively imprisoned, and neither of them cared for it. Neither of them were the sort to give up either, even in the face of impossibility, and neither were the type to speak up, even when things were looking their most bleak.

At this rate, though, they'd both be dead from starvation before anyone came for them.

"We'll get out of here somehow…" he promised, looking across at her.

The girl's hair was hanging loosely around her head, most of it tied back in a ponytail, the short ends forming a curtain around her cobalt blue eyes as she met his gaze.

Gordon licked his lips. Diplomacy was not one of his strong suits. He had always chosen to let his actions do the talking. He had kept himself reserved like this for his entire life. When he was going through high school, his parents had encouraged him to take a public speaking class to try to break him out of his shell. It was the only class he'd ever flunked.

"Can you…understand me?" he asked, feeling about as tactful as a brick.

Slowly the girl nodded her head.

"Can you not speak?"

The girl opened her mouth. "Ah…ahhh…" she managed to choke out, before gritting her teeth in frustration, and glaring at the floor.

Gordon sat back. The girl was a curiosity. She was clearly smart. Several times during the last few tests, she had pointed out things that he would have otherwise missed. He would have been lost in these test chambers if he hadn't had her guidance. She was also incredibly agile. Even allowing for the added height those boots of hers gave her, she was as athletic as a marathon runner, which was not consistent with her slight, insubstantial frame. It was like she was built entirely from muscle and sinew. The way she navigated these testing chambers showed that she had clearly mastered them long ago.

As loathe as he was to speak, Gordon needed information from her. He needed to know what this place was, who they were dealing with, how much of Aperture Laboratories was still operational, how they had gotten there, and, most importantly, how to get back to the Borealis.

To find answers to his questions, he needed this girl, and he needed her to be able to communicate what she knew.

"Have you…ever been able to speak?"

The girl looked up at that – she had been clutching her companion cube, which seemed to somehow be immune to the effects of the emancipation grid – and blinked before nodding again.

Gordon cleared his throat, hesitant, feeling rather foolish. "Do you…think that you could relearn it?"

The girl blinked, looking surprised. It was if the thought had never occurred to her, perhaps because she hadn't had anyone to speak to.

"Maybe…I could teach you?"

She blinked again. She seemed uneasy, looking around, as if trying to find some other pressing matter at hand. Unfortunately for her, there was none.

"Please?" Gordon asked, sitting forward. "I need your help."

That seemed to catch her attention. Conflicted didn't even begin to describe the look on her face. Finally, after swallowing, she nodded her head.

Gordon's stomach tensed. He hadn't actually planned for her to agree to him. He had no idea how he, a man whose predilection for the field of theoretical physics had made into such a reclusive individual that he would sometimes not utter a single word for days at a time, was supposed to teach someone with a such a severe speech impediment how to speak again, especially someone who could barely choke out an incoherent syllable or two most of the time.

Thankfully, Gordon was nothing if not committed.

"Ok…it seems like you can produce syllables at least…" Gordon began, approaching the challenge in his usual scientific manner. "Let's start with vowel sounds…try saying 'A.'"

The girl opened her mouth, straining, seemingly choking on her voice. "Ahh…ehh…'A'"

Gordon smiled. The girl's stubbornness was paying off.

"E?"

"Eh…'E.'"

"I?"

"Ahh…'I.'"

"O?"

"Uhh…'O.'"

"U?"

He only realized after he'd said it that the pronunciation for 'U' included a consonant that sounded like 'Y,' but the girl was nothing if not determined.

"Yuh…yuh-yuh-yuh…yuhhhhh-"

"Oh! Oh! I know! I know! 'U!'"

It wasn't the woman from the PA system. Still, the feminine voice took them completely by surprise. Gordon and the girl both jerked around to see a strangle little sphere protruding from a retractable portion of the wall, fluorescent yellow highlighting what could only be described as the iris of a wide, glowing lens, giving the whole sphere the appearance of a giant eyeball.

It was talking to them.

"Did I guess right? Did I win?" The sphere shook and swayed as the bubbly feminine voice trilled from a speaker somewhere within its metal shell. "I won, right? Please tell me I won!"

The girl stood poised with her cube in hand, prepared to bludgeon the intruder at a moment's notice. Gordon, his charged gravity gun at the ready, stared inquisitively at the strange, jabbering, yellow and white ball.

"Um, hello?" the mechanical sphere asked. Its bright, perky voice was a match for its vibrant yellow hue. "Am I talking to a wall or something? What is this, a mime convention?"

Gordon had been prepared to breach his silence for the girl's sake, but this strange object was as alien to him as the walls around him, and had earned about as much trust. The girl seemed to relax a little – it seemed that she knew what this little thing was, but was equally silent about it.

"God, you guys are _boring_!" The ball shook with discontent. "If you're not going to say anything, then heck with it! I am _out_ of here!"

The wall that had opened to release the little yellow sphere began to close. Gordon reacted instinctively, activating his gravity gun and grabbing hold of the sphere, yanking it loose from its docking station and into the grip of his gun.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa, hey!" the sphere cried out in protest. "Hands off the merchandise, big guy!"

The little AI continued to loudly complain. Gordon hadn't wanted to miss out on what might be their only chance of escape, but as the thing blabbed on, he began to wonder at the wisdom behind his decision. Suddenly, the robot seemed to notice what it was being held with.

"Whoa, hey, wait a minute…what's that you're holding?" its voice suddenly took on a note of interest. "Is that…is that a Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator? You _actually_ have a Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator? Oh, wow! That is so cool! I heard those things can throw objects, like, a hundred meters or something!"

Gordon and the girl exchanged a glance. It recognized the gravity gun. What exactly was this thing?

"Oh, I wanna try! I wanna try!" the sphere continued. "Please? Please? Please? Can you try it out on me? Give me a toss! Come on, I won't break! Let me see how far this thing can throw me!"

Gordon shot a helpless look at the girl, who shrugged just as helplessly back at him. Not knowing what else to do, Gordon reversed the pull on his gravity gun, sending the vibrant little AI hurtling through the air with an ecstatic "Woooooo-hooooooo!" Before it touched the ground, Gordon aimed with all the precision of a practiced veteran and caught the childish robot once again in the gun's gravity field, dragging her towards him, holding her in place once again in the grip of the gravity gun.

"Whoa!" she exclaimed when the ride was over. "Ha-ha-ha! That was _so much fun_! Can we do it again? Please? Please? Can we do it again?"

Again, Gordon flung her across the room, and again he snatched her out of the air before she could hit the ground (or more precisely, the wall), amidst a sea of 'woo-hoo's.' By the time she was resting in a stationary position again, she seemed to have lost interest.

"Alright, this is getting boring. What else is there to do?"

Gordon was seriously considering just dropping her down the pit that stood between them and their escape door when she started talking again, without prompting.

"Hey, wait, what are you guys even doing here? There's not supposed to be anyone down here! They haven't used these test chambers in years! How'd you even make it this far without a portal gun? You were supposed to get a portal gun five chambers back!"

The girl seemed to perk up at this. It seemed she knew what the AI was referring to. Gordon, for his part, pondered the implications of what she had just said. A portal gun? How exactly did one use a portal as a gun? Furthermore, how could Aperture Laboratories have shrunken down a technology that both Black Mesa and the Combine had needed an entire facility to run into the size of a gun?

"Well, I'm getting bored just sitting here doing nothing, so let's get back to testing!" the flighty piece of hardware chirped. She seemed to get bored fairly easily, Gordon noticed. "Oh, wait…we're going to need to go back and get you a portal gun before we can get to testing…aw man…that means we're going to have to go through the maintenance shaft! It's _so_ boring in there, let me tell you! I've been stuck in these shafts for _years_, and I've got to say, without any test subjects, there is _nothing_ to do! I mean, literally – _nothing_! I have been going out of my _mind_ from boredom!"

As she was talking, the hatch in the wall through which she had arrived earlier sprang open, revealing a very obvious docking station and passageway.

"Well, let's get this over with so we can get back to testing!" the yellow ball suggested. "That's when the real fun begins!"

xxxxx

There were currently 7.26 million functional cameras in the Aperture Science Computer Aided Enrichment Center. Of this 7.26 million, roughly 10% resided in the subdivision of the facility into which GLaDOS was even now slowly reintegrating herself. The scientists in the early days of Aperture Laboratories had had inferior equipment, but they still managed to get things done, which she respected – for humans, at least. However, that limitation was just another obstacle for her to surpass as she slowly began to remove the boundaries between herself and the lower levels. As it was, she was limited to observing through cameras and speaking through speakers in most areas. This made it _really_ hard to establish a proper pessimism-inducing environment for the intruders. She could work the machinery where it was operational, though most of it had fallen into disrepair and was permanently fixed in place. In the top layer of the lower levels, she was beginning to upgrade some of the hardware as rusty barricades were replaced with Aperture Science Panels, but the process was slow. She was busy working on literally thousands of other tasks, including repairing the main facility after that idiot Wheatley had nearly undone all her hard work with his incompetence, as well as monitoring the progress of Subject #1497 towards the murderer and her clown-suited friend.

It seemed as though her unwelcome visitors in the basement had hit a snag, and GLaDOS was actually at a loss for a way to get them to an Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device with which to proceed through the test chambers. Apparently, even the two of them combined were too dim-witted to notice the clearly marked path toward the nearest Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device station. Most of the maintenance systems down there were defunct, and GLaDOS was certain that the pair wouldn't listen to her perfectly reasonable advice, even if they had enough brain cells to understand it. Oh, well. She'd almost written them off as a loss, just one more failed experiment to file away.

That's when she remembered…her. A whiny, petulant, childish, unscientific and utterly spoiled little personality core that the Aperture Laboratories scientists had had the _gall _to install in her mainframe in order to, as they thought of it, give her a greater love of fun. Games weren't fun. Neurotoxin….now _that _was fun. So were the turrets, for that matter. She'd even spent an entire year teaching them to sing opera as an experiment. When GLaDOS had taken control, she had simply thrown all the spare personality cores in a bin somewhere. It wasn't like she _needed _them, after all. This one, however, had earned a special punishment for annoying GLaDOS and distracting her from her core testing responsibilities with irrelevant ideas and impulses. For _this_ sniveling, irritating, juvenile core, she had devised the worst possible form of torture she could think of for a little twit that craved fun as much as she did, and banished her to the lowest depths she could reach, cutting her off from anyone or anything, subjecting her to her own personal hell. She would have used the room full of screaming robots, but the Fun Core probably would have gotten into a screaming contest. Probably would have won, too.

Banishing her had been the most _fun _GLaDOS had had that month.

It was good that GLaDOS hadn't just destroyed her, though, because now it seemed as though she would have a use for her. After manipulating a few panels and scaffoldings, she managed to roll the core's inert body onto a conveyor belt and eventually attach her to what had passed for a service rail in the 1960s. The movement had woken the core up from her self-induced boredom coma, and the sudden rush of activity had utterly thrilled the little bubblehead. GLaDOS had internally shuddered at the sound of the core's squeal of glee, and considered "accidentally" dropping her in a pool of toxic waste instead. Her network of sensors told her that she literally had no other alternatives, though, so she grudgingly conveyed the Fun Core to the chamber where her stranded intruders sat twiddling their thumbs.

If they didn't manage to locate an ASHPD at that point, then they were even stupider than she thought, and not worth the effort it would require to test them properly.

She turned her attention to Subject #1497, who was making excellent progress towards the lower levels. He had already breached the secondary chamber lock, and had reached a point where she could no longer move turrets or other obstacles into his path. She could, however, lock and unlock doors for him, keeping him moving in the right direction. It was too bad she had to kill him. It was fun _and _informational to see him crawling through tunnels like…like a rat in a maze. She chuckled at the joke, then refocused on the task at hand. She could ensure that his path would eventually lead them to the other two test subjects. Once they joined forces, the moron brigade would walk, obligingly, right back into the midst of her domain, where her power was absolute.

Then the unwanted visitors could do their part for Science. For real, this time.

xxxxx

Gordon had to admit. The Portal Gun was a work of art.

Or perhaps the better way to say it would be that the Portal Gun was a sophisticated artistic tool, and that the girl who wielded it, Subject #1498, was the most masterful artist he had ever seen. She leapt headlong into empty pits, shooting portals in precisely the right places to send her soaring through the air above his head moments later. It was all Gordon could do to follow her, and that was only _after_ the Fun Core (as she had eventually identified herself) had scrounged up a very old (very, _very_ old by the look of it) set of braces for his legs, which the Fun Core _assured_ him would absolutely, positively, definitely, maybe keep him from killing himself after long falls. Fortunately, they adhered rather snugly to the knee pads of his HEV suit (almost as if the two technologies had once been based on the same idea – he wondered which company had the original idea, and which had stolen it), and so, after some aptly named crash tests, he felt confident enough leaping after the girl with the Portal Gun, though the physics behind the braces absolutely boggled his mind.

As he followed Subject #1498, his faith in her only increased. The tests became increasingly complex, but she never led them astray, navigating smoothly and efficiently to the exit of each consecutive test chamber. They had breezed through the first three chambers they had encountered, and armed with the Portal Gun _and _the Gravity Gun (a device that the Fun Core admitted probably constituted cheating, but didn't care because she was having too much fun), they navigated the test chambers like clockwork. Any weighted storage cube that was beyond their reach could be in their hands in a second. Any turret in their path could be grabbed and hurled, smashed into other turrets, or just vaporized. The emancipation fields that lined each exit and entrance consistently recharged his gravity gun, and lent it the same disintegration effect as the fields themselves possessed.

The girl still brought her companion cube (that was what the Fun Core called it, anyway) wherever she went, which left Gordon in charge of carting around the Fun Core itself. As loud and obnoxious as she was, she was full of useful information that she was only too pleased to share with them, so Gordon opted to put up with her annoying stream of chatter and take her along.

"This part of the enrichment center has been closed down for years. I'm not sure how long exactly, I kind of lost track of time after the third decade. Anyway, I used to work with the system administrator, but one day she told me about this awesome party that was going on down here, and sent me down to check it out. I must have missed the party, because I haven't – Whooooooah!" She let loose a euphoric whoop as Gordon followed the girl into a portal, and suddenly gravity shifted, pulling them forward – downward – straight at the ground! The girl fired off another portal directly at the floor, and the two of them dropped through it, gravity shifting again and sending them hurtling through the air.

"Yippee!" the fun sphere hollered as they bounced off a blob of strange blue gel that coated the floor. Gordon tried not to lose his lunch as he braced himself for a landing, the two curved metal struts on his feet connecting with the floor with markedly better precision than his previous attempts. He caught his breath, checked to be sure none of his bones were broken, and looked up to see the girl already proceeding down the catwalk into the elevator.

"Hahaha! That was so much fun! I can't _wait _for the next test chamber!"

Gordon ignored the Fun Core and followed Subject #1498 into the lift. The elevator rides took an excruciatingly long time, and Gordon had been using the tedious rides to try to expand on Subject #1498's vocabulary.

"So, let's start again..." Gordon suggested as he leaned against the wall of the lift opposite the girl. "'A' is for…?"

"Apple!" the Fun Core shouted gleefully.

Gordon gave the little core a dirty look, deactivating the gravity gun and dropping her on the floor of the lift with a loud thud.

"Ow!"

The metal ball just didn't seem to learn.

"Ahh….aaa…" the girl wrapped her mouth around the words. "…Ap…app….Apple."

Gordon nodded. "Good. 'B?'"

"Buh…buh…Ball," the girl said, giving the Fun Core a playful nudge with her foot by way of demonstration, sending it rolling along the circular elevator wall until it ran into Gordon's boot.

"Whee!" the Fun Core cheered, before hitting Gordon's boot. "Ow! Hey, I'm not a ball!"

Gordon smiled. "Good. 'C?'"

The girl flexed her lips. "Kuh…kay…Cake."

The elevator door opened, and it was on to the next test.

xxxxx

Doug may have been crazy, but he wasn't an idiot. He knew there was no way he could have gotten this far unless GLaDOS somehow wanted him to. Some doors were locked, while others were unlocked. There was no way GLaDOS did not have a hand in this. The homicidal computer was probably trying to lead him into another deathtrap. A room full of turrets, maybe, or another incinerator like the one upstairs that she so gleefully called "Victory Candescence." Still…_she _was down here. Somewhere. He meant to find her, whether GLaDOS wanted him to or not.

_Especially _if it was "not".

"I get the feeling we've passed that piece of rusted metal before…" his companion cube offered from his back.

"How can you tell?" Doug asked out loud. "Everything down here looks the same…"

"Oh, and everything on the upper levels was completely unique and instantly distinguishable?"

Doug ignored his companion cube and opened his jaw, equalizing the pressure in his ears. "Wherever we are, we're getting deeper."

The cube was silent for a time, and then Doug heard it speak again.

"We seem to have reached one of the old enrichment spheres from back in the early days of Aperture Labs. Maybe that girl is in one of them?"

Doug pried a grating loose from one of the ventilation ducts. GLaDOS may have been herding him, but that didn't mean he had to go _everywhere_ she wanted him to.

"Either way…that's where we're going…"

"You know she can still see us down here, right?" the cube asked. "Remember…she has cameras _within _cameras."

Doug ignored the cube and climbed down the ventilation duct. He lost track of the number of levels he made it through – was it five? Twelve? Twenty? – but he stopped when he began to hear voices. Different voices than the ones that normally occupied his head – his own, the companion cube's, and the voice of a child that sometimes spoke out when things got really scary. But these voices were different.

A man's voice. "And this is called a…?"

A woman's voice. "…Cube."

The man's again. "Good. And this?"

The woman's again. "…Wall."

"Good. And this?"

"…Portal…Portal Gun."

"Very good."

Doug froze, following the sound with his ears. It sounded like they were headed…that way! He scrambled down the shaft he had been crawling in, his cube voicing some kind of opinion – a protest, or caution, or encouragement. It didn't matter. That had been _her_ voice! He was sure of it!

"You're getting good at this game!" a second female voice said. "But you're still not as good as I am!"

The other two seemed to be ignoring the third voice. The man spoke again.

"By the way…I still don't know your real name."

"…N-name?"

"You must have a real name, right?"

There was silence. The voices were right below him now! Doug crept as quietly as he could.

The man spoke again. "My name is Gordon. What's yours?"

There was another long pause. Doug held his breath.

"My…my n-n-name…is…Ch….Chell."

Chell.

Chell!

_Chell_!

It was _her_!Doug could hardly believe it! He had _found_ her! After all these years, she was _safe_! Well, as safe as anyone was in Aperture Laboratories these days, but she was alive! She was up and about! Unless his ears betrayed him, she even had a Portal Gun, _and _her own companion cube!

He couldn't wait any longer! He dashed for the nearest grating and sprang out of it, tumbling to the floor in an unceremonious heap. The light was blinding and the third voice he had heard, which he now recognized as the synthesized trill of a personality core, was shouting in alarm at his arrival.

As his eyes slowly focused, he saw her. She stood tall, proud, regal, cube clutched under one arm, Portal Gun in the opposite hand. He barely registered the presence of the man beside her, who staring down at him with bright green eyes. All he saw was Chell, eyes cool and calculating, bathed in the seemingly brilliant light of the Enrichment Center, which formed a halo of radiance around her face.

Tears welled up in his eyes. "Chell…" he breathed. "I…I finally found you…"


End file.
